Nightmare in the Millennium City

The Gurgaon Police may have beefed up security on MG Road, from where a woman was abducted and gangraped last week, but other parts of the Millennium City have been virtually left to the mercy of law-breakers and rapists.

After dark, except the area around Sahara Mall where the victim worked in a bar, police vans do not care to even leisurely go around and take stock.

On Saturday night, an HT team patrolled several stretches of the city during a five-hour operation beginning 10 pm.

What was revealed was shocking.

The Gurgaon police have 43 PCR vans but the HT team spotted only five on the roads - three near Sahara Mall and two elsewhere. None of the 140 beat constables on bikes could be seen.

Vulnerable locations such as Shankar Chowk, IFFCO Chowk and Rajiv Chowk - areas where cabbie gangs had been active - were unattended. The HT team drove past the locations twice between 10 pm and 3 am.

There were no checking points on the three major roads leading to Delhi, which criminals often use to flee the city.

While there was no police presence on the Delhi- Gurgaon toll plaza, a PCR van spotted at the Kapashera border was seen merely passing by to adjoining Udyog Vihar.

The HT team waited for nearly 20 minutes at the Kherki Dhaula toll plaza, where an attendant was shot dead last year, but no PCR van was seen.

A PCR van was, however, spotted at the Delhi border on MG road. Despite being a weekend, not a single police team was seen checking on drunk driving. "We are short of breath analysers," said a sub inspector in one of the PCR vans. MG road has nearly 50 bars.

"All PCR vans in my area of jurisdiction are on patrol," said DCP (crime) Maheshwar Dayal.

Falling footfallsThe rising crime graph coupled with a scare has resulted in a drastic drop in the footfall in MG Road malls. According to BR Wassan, president of the MGF Mall Occupants Association, there has been a 15 per cent drop in the past week.